Chocolate French Silk Pie

Rich and decadent chocolate french silk pie recipe. This pie filling requires no baking and is a rich silky chocolate filling with whipped cream topping and chocolate shavings.

I fully admit that I have avoidance issues when it comes to pie. I rarely make them. And it has nothing to do with disliking pie. Pie is probably one of my favorite desserts. But I don’t particularly like making them.

I have realized that the only reason I don’t like making them is because I’m not confident in my crust technique. Why is it so hard to make the edges look pretty?!

Making desserts that look pretty is definitely not my strong point. I fully admit that. I am much better at making desserts that taste awesome.

But with the holidays coming up I am determined to end my avoidance of pie and start getting confident with it. Avoiding things is never the answer.

And maybe after I tackle pies I’ll start in on cakes. The thought of that just gave me a whole lot of anxiety… It’s okay. We’re still on pie. One intimidating decorative dessert at a time here.

Let’s talk eggs for a moment. More specifically, raw eggs. I feel it is my duty as a recipe blogger to give the raw egg disclaimer on this recipe since it does call for raw eggs. If you are going to make this pie I want you to listen to me closely.

Use fresh eggs for this. Eggs that are at least grade A or preferably grade AA, or even better yet you could use pasteurized shell eggs if you are overly concerned about getting sick!

Don’t use grade B or eggs that you forgot to put away and left out on the counter for a couple of hours. The chances of you getting sick from eating a little raw egg are pretty rare. But let’s just keep those chances to the absolute minimum by using eggs that haven’t had time to grow a whole lot of bacteria.

I fully admit that I eat raw egg all the time. I actually eat raw egg from unpasteurized eggs all the time. A lot of batter gets into my tummy before it goes into the oven and I barely cook my runny eggs in the morning. But I fully understand if you are not okay with the small risk raw eggs bring.

And if you are pregnant, or have a weak immune system, or are feeding small children you should be more cautious. Either pass this recipe by, or you can also buy pasteurized in the shell eggs in the grocery store.

Now there are recipes out there calling themselves French Silk Pie that do not use raw eggs. However, I have to say that these pies aren’t really true to what French Silk Pie really is.

French Silk Pie is actually an american creation. Unlike a cooked custard cream pie, it is incredibly dense and “silky.” The eggs bring a lot of richness to the pie and this is one of those desserts that I can really only have a few bites of because of how rich it is. My husband, on the other hand, can eat a huge piece for breakfast and feel great.

I hope everyone is looking forward to the holidays with as little stress as possible. This is a great dessert to make the day or even two days before! It holds up well under refrigeration and you can add the whipped cream on just before serving to keep a fresher taste and look.

And cut small pieces for your family to make sure there is some left over for breakfast the next day. Leftover pie for breakfast is one of the best things about the holidays.

I’m so sorry you had problems with this recipe. Did you beat it for the full time indicated? It takes 20 full minutes of beating to get the right texture otherwise it will not have the right consistency and will not set. The mixture will be quite thick after beating. Almost thick enough to slice right then.

I have made this pie numerous times and one time it didn’t set up. It seems that 5 minutes after each egg was too long and my mixer was actually heating up and making it warm. The next time I did 4 minutes after each egg and it was perfect again.

I made this pie…and I almost wish I hadn't! It was sooooo good that I want to make it over and over. I was kinda shocked at how the beating of the eggs made it "set." Who knew that was the secret. 🙂 If someone's didn't set then they clearly didn't follow the instructions. Yummy. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for the recipe my pie was absolutely awesome. I also added a tablespoon of brandy and used a butter based crust recipe from Joy of Cooking. Other than having to borrow my neighbors stand mixer this recipe is perfect.

I really don’t think that will work Linda. I can’t say for certain because I haven’t tried it, but egg beaters do not whip up the way eggs do. You need to air to whip into the eggs for this to set. Like Lisa said, pasteurized whole eggs would be fine.

There really is no substitute for fresh, lovely eggs; however, because my mother-in-law was immuno-compromised, I did not like to use raw eggs in the final product of my desserts. For my silk pie, I simply changed up the method a little and used an electric hand mixer to blend 1 cup of the sugar and all of the eggs together (and liqueur, if you’re using any), then placed the bowl over simmering water (where the water doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl, or use a double-boiler) and mixed for 8 to 10 minutes until the sugar dissolved, the mixture was hot and the volume increased significantly; at that point the eggs are beyond foamy, looking almost like a meringue. Essentially, I was making a zabaglione (sabayon). I set it aside to cool and, when it was, I beat the butter with the rest of the sugar, added the chocolate and then added the egg mixture, last. It lent an even more silky texture to the final product and I could feel more peace of mind serving it to my beautiful mother-in-law.

Your ‘Chocolate French Silk Pie’ most certainly looks ‘Pretty & Beautiful’ to me!
You have perfected the pie crust, it all looks amazing, luxurious & decadent to me…
Picture perfect..I too could quite easily eat a huge slice of this glorious, rich chocolate, silky pie no problem…
Could eat some now for breakfast at 8.30 am. G.M.T. that’s how delicious it looks, if only I had some made!
Loving your recipes, posts & detailed explanations, looking forward to many more to come, looking forward to making this…
Makes a great change to serve to guests over the holidays, I’m sure that they will love it as much as I will.
Many, many thanks from us here in the U.K.

My filling went flat and yes, I did beat it the full 5 minutes between eggs. Half way through when I added the 3rd egg it died. Didn’t work for me. Disappointed as this was for a party tomorrow and I don’t have more ingredients.

Unfortunately, for this particular recipe, real eggs are very essential to making the pie set. I did a quick google search though and I found another recipe for egg free french silk pie you might be able to try! http://addapinch.com/cooking/french-silk-pie-recipe/

I have always made this pie with a chocolate wafer crumb crust( 1-1/2 cup crumbs, 1Tbsp of sugar, 4 oz melted butter). It makes the pie even more decadent . You can add some plain gelatin (1 package softened with water and then cooked to clear on the stove and cooled) to the whipped cream and it will hold up for days, if the pie lasts that long.

It really depends on a number of things such as the humidity that day and where you live to how accurately you measured to flour. The recipe states to add ice water 1 TBSP at a time and stir gently until the crust comes together. This typically takes anywhere from 1/4 cup- 1/2 cup.

Been making this since for 50 years and it is now my 6 Grandson’s favorite dessert…which I only make for holidays. Yes, use very fresh raw eggs; butter and real whipping cream! For those who use only low or non-fat products, don’t bother making this; substitutes will not work!

The person that wrote the part about the freshness of the eggs don’t know what they are talking about. The B, A, and AA only refers to the size of the eggs not the freshness. AA=Extra Large. A=Large. and B=Medium. The carton has the date on it.
Here in central Kansas to get fresh eggs we have to buy them from a farmer.
To check the eggs for freshness put them in a bowl of water. If they float they are fresh. As the air leaks out of them and they get older they will sink.
I’m 79 years old and have never gotten sick from raw or partly cooked eggs.
Lee.

Thanks for the comment. I do have to disagree with you however. Grading has nothing to do with the size of the egg. The way eggs are graded is by measuring the intereior and exterior quality of the egg. The density of the white and the air pockets in the egg are measured, as well as an inspection of the exterior shell. As eggs age the air cell grows and the whites loose density. So as eggs age their grade level changes based on the density of the whites and the air cell size inside. Therefore, fresher eggs have higher grades and older eggs have a lower grade. The size is not taken into account when grading. You can read more about egg grading here: http://curbstonevalley.com/blog/?p=3354

Sooo I doubt you’ll read and reply to this as I’m doing it, but thought I’d ask anyhow. I added the eggs beating after each addition. However, I didn’t see the part about 5 minutes in between each…so I’m letting it beat for 20 minutes now. Do you think it will set up or should I go to a back up recipe? Thanks

This our freezes very, very well. I always make my Thanksgiving pies in Oct. I put two in the freezer in Oct a few years ago and forgot about one. (I know, HOW could I forget this awesome pie?) I pulled it out in August, and it was still as yummy as ever. I freeze these in large plastic zipper bags.

I made this yesterday. I did use a different crust. It’s very similar to the recipe above but with butter instead. This turned out amazing!! So rich and so delicious. I used everything except the espresso powder as I didn’t have any and used the recommended Ghirardelli. Soooo good with homemade whipped creme. Mmmm. Definitely try it. I have no problem with mine falling when adding my eggs.

EXCELLENT recipe! I pinned this over a year ago and finally made it tonight when we had friends over and it was most definitely a hit. I’ll be cutting smaller pieces next time because it’s so rich – but we loved it! I’m amazed that beating the eggs that long stabilizes them and sets up that firm. Thanks for the recipe!

Hi Zane! No, you do not want to store this pie at room temperature. You need to keep it cold for several reasons. It will not stay firm at room temperature and also the pie contains raw eggs so you definitely want to keep it chilled so that it stays safe to eat.

This pie is traditionally made with raw eggs. The whipping of the eggs causes the pie to set. There is commentary in the post regarding the safety of consuming raw eggs. Make sure you use fresh eggs, or if you are concerned, look for “pasteurized” eggs which eliminates the risk of getting sick.

I just finished making this pie & the only ingredient I left out was the instant espresso. I’m curious to know if the bitterness of the unsweetened chocolate tames a bit after resting several hours? I wanted to make 2 of these for Thanksgiving but am a lil afraid that the filling will be too bitter. Any idea on how to sweetened it just a little bit? I am no good at tweaking recipies.

I made this pie the first time just as the recipe says and it turned out really good and then I made a second pie but was out of vanilla extract so I used peppermint extract instead and was a little wary about how it would taste…. Well my worries were for nothing because this tasted awesome with the mint in it, kind of like a peppermint paddy pie. So good. Thanks for the awesome recipe and if you like minty chocolate give the peppermint extract a try and you won’t be disappointed. Also I on used 1 teaspoon on peppermint.